The Last Sherlock Holmes Story

by Michael Dibdin

Book Overview

There can be no question that the contents of this book will prove extremely controversial. Many people will be deeply shocked by the nature of Watson's statement. Many will no doubt prefer to reject... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0679766588
• ISBN13: 9780679766582
• Release Date: January 1996
• Publisher: Vintage Crime/Black Lizard
• Length: 192 Pages
• Weight: 0.52 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.2" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

A Slap in the Reader’s Face

When I started reading this book, my initial response was: Wow! Michael Dibdin REALLY has the voice of Watson down perfectly! I’ve been reading a LOT of Holmes pastiches lately, but I’ve also been reading the Doyle Canon stories - aloud, to my 10-year-old daughter - so I’m pretty attuned to Watson’s “writing voice,” and Michael Dibdin does it, in this book, as well as any of the best of them. That’s the good. The not-so-good: This is a Jack the Ripper story. Somewhere there is a wannabe-original-Holmes-writer deciding that he or she will write an amazing, original Holmes-meets-Ripper story. Guess what? It’s been done to death, to hell, and back from the grave. I have a list of over a dozen published Holmes-meets-Ripper stories, and I’m sure there are more than that. It’s not an original idea. The really bad: This is an original spin on Holmes meeting the Ripper. I’m all in favor of originality, but - as an enthusiast (and aspiring writer) of Sherlock Holmes stories, I HATED THE ENDING. I was profoundly disappointed - it sucks. It’s skillfully done, but it sucks. Do this with any other detective, but not my Sherlock Holmes. It doesn’t just depart from the Canon - after such a promising beginning. It spits in the Canon’s face. If you dare to read it - if you like Sherlock Holmes - you will probably hate it too. I won’t say - exactly - that I wish I hadn’t read it. But I will say I wish Michael Dibdin, with all his writing skill, had chosen to end this story a different way. I guess the problem boils down to this: This book is the sort that will attract mostly Sherlockians as readers. And Sherlockians are the ones most likely to find it infuriating, or at least disappointing. The author, as he was finishing this book, seems to have been too impressed with his own cleverness to ask himself whether readers would really come away from this book happy that they had even opened it. It offends its target market. Five stars for skill. Zero stars for satisfaction. It cheats the reader. The final rating of two is only because of the author’s high skill.